Okay, so I’m still internally fighting the power BUT also working and staying more sane at the same time. I realize now that I don’t have as much energy as I did early on today as I was studying but I felt that it was necessary, to go back and fix what I’ve changed over the last several years of being a student at the Academy of Art. I felt like I grew up a lot and that I’m taking more time becoming a serious artist and designer in my final years here, rather than just being an “art student” who is only there for the the college and youth lifestyle (as much as I enjoy witnessing it that’s not really something to aspire to as my future prospect when I’m older).

The web/design industry is super cutthroat compared to other creative industries and they expect you to do your best always, all the time. As an 18 – early 20 something year old that really placed a lot of pressure on me, it wasn’t just walking around San Francisco’s Financial District and eating Chipotle burritos but it was actually doing work. I had already adjusted to life in the United States after living in Israel for seven years and did little to no homework throughout middle and high school. I realized then and there that I had to take my work more seriously, even if one instructor says it was the best they’ve ever seen, then I revise the shit out of it.

On the left is a poster that I first designed for the book Hindsights seven years ago, not really made with much thought, with a font that I liked and some graphics thrown in for interest. On the right is a poster that I’ve designed again for the book, except it took me a while to figure out what type of picture should be used (if it should be drawn by hand or photographed), what kind of font would go well and how everything should be placed. I found a photograph that my family had shot in Colorado, then darkened and blurred out the image in Photoshop, used a white serif based font and rearranged the font to have authors name larger on the very bottom instead of right below the title. It took me more consideration on the second poster in one night than the first one I did in two weeks time.

I felt extremely embarrassed as I was handing in the initial poster to class. I knew the instructor then wouldn’t like it (and it wouldn’t be something that the author himself wanted) But I handed it in anyways because I just needed to hand something in instead of getting a flat-out F by handing in nothing at all (and yes I did believe I would get an A- or higher on my then less-than-stellar poster).

The one thing I learned by designing this is the more your dedicated yourself to something, your more than likely to have something come out beautifully if you grow more serious about it and it took me at least five years to get towards that realization.